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And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death (Revelation 12:11, ESV).
It’s not a matter of if, but when we encounter trials as followers of Jesus.
Hardships come in endless varieties: accidents, persecution, personal mistakes, false accusations, and sickness. Yet, James 1:2 commands us: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials!” It sounds counterintuitive, but Christians have been writing about their victory over deep trials since the first century.
Below are the testimonies of saints who found the secret to “rejoicing in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4), even when their circumstances were falling apart.
St. Augustine of Hippo
In The City of God, Augustine noted that the exact same trial can produce two entirely different results depending on where a heart is anchored:
In the same fire, gold shines and straw smokes… underlying the same affliction, the wicked detest and blaspheme God, while the good pray and praise Him. The difference lies not in what they suffer, but in how they suffer.
St. John of the Cross
When dealing with moments where God feels completely silent and emotional comfort dries up entirely, he offered this beautiful paradox:
In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God.
David Wilkerson
In his classic sermon titled A Place Called Wit’s End—based on the storm-tossed sailors in Psalm 107:27-28 who “reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end”—Wilkerson writes a reminder about who actually controls our storms:
It was God who commanded the stormy wind to blow, not the devil. God intentionally brings His children to a place of helplessness to break their dependence on human strength. At Wit’s End, you cannot think your way out of the crisis, and you cannot rely on sheer ‘fleshly determination’ or willpower to fix it. Your soul melts, and you stagger like a drunken man. Deliverance only comes when the sailors stop trying to save themselves and surrender completely. The very next verse states: ‘Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.”
Susanna Wesley
Famously known as the “Mother of Methodism,” Susanna viewed suffering not as a sign of God’s anger or abandonment, but as a purposeful, divine tool meant to refine the soul. Her perspective carries massive authority because she spoke directly from personal heartbreak. Out of the 19 children she delivered, nine died in infancy, and a tenth was tragically lost to an accident. Her family survived extreme poverty, local hatred, her husband’s imprisonment, and two devastating house fires that burned everything they owned.
Yet, in a letter to her son John Wesley, Susanna argued fiercely against theologies that teach God wants His followers to be perpetually miserable on earth. Though suffering will be encountered, she insisted it should never hold the power to corrupt our fundamental joy:
Our blessed Lord, who came from heaven to save us from our sins… did not intend by commanding us to ‘take up the cross’ that we should bid adieu to all joy and satisfaction… but he opens and extends our views beyond time to eternity.
Now, consider this:
As you remember these timeless phrases— “not if but when,” “the difference is how we suffer,” “the dark night of the soul,” “at wit’s end,” and “never bidding adieu to joy”—take a moment to examine your own heart today:
- How do you typically respond when a trial catches you off guard? Do your circumstances make you burn like straw, or shine like gold?
- What is your greatest personal concern right now? Is it a place where you can actively choose to invite God’s joy into the middle of the mess?
- How does keeping an eternal perspective change the weight of the temporary storm you are standing in?